Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR Nov 20: As Darbar moved to Jammu and there is early onset of winter due to snowfall on hills, Kashmir valley is reeling under power crisis with Power Development Department (PDD) resorting to frequent and unscheduled power cuts.
People across Kashmir valley are complaining that there are unscheduled and frequent power cuts for last 20 days. “We don’t know anything about power curtailment schedule. The PDD is resorting to frequent power cuts in our area”, says Farooq Ahmad of Jawahar Nagar.
The Chief Engineer Power Development Department (PDD), Bashir Ahmad Khan, told Excelsior that power demand has increased due to cold weather and admitted that there is power curtailment. “We are importing 1200 MWs of power these days and the demand is 1600 MWs. However, the registered demanded under power agreement is only 800 MWs”, he said.
Khan said that the metered areas are subjected to 21 hours of weekly cut and non metered 56 hours. He said that metered areas have one hour each morning, day and evening cut daily. The non-metered areas have three day evening and morning cuts of two hours each, one night cut of 7 hours and day cut of 5 hours.
The residents of North Kashmir’s Palhalan and Wagoora Takia area said that the area receives power for 4-6 hours daily. Residents of village Zougyar in Sheeri area of Baramulla said that they are being supplied power for 2-4 hours daily. The residents of Sopore town in Baramulla said that they have 14 hours daily power cut. The residents of Old town Baramulla said that they have 8-10 hour daily power cut. Residents of Lolab, Dardpora, Chandigam Sogam, Devar Lolab and Lalpora in the frontier district of Kupwara said that these areas receive only 4 hours power supply daily. They said that no power schedule is followed by the PDD.
The residents of around 42 villages in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district said that they are facing worst power crisis since the beginning of this month. The residents say that no power schedule is being followed in these villages.
However, Junior Engineer PDD in Pulwama, Sandeep Bhat, said that one of the 10 KMV transformers of the Pulwama Receiving Station had developed technical snag on November 6. “We are going for 33 percent power curtailment in these areas and we are trying to restore the transformer”, he added.
The PDD Chief Engineer said that the department has formed a power schedule and they are also going for power cuts as per the schedule. He said that the power curtailment schedule has been sent to the Government and once it is approved, it will be made public.
Khan said that power thefts and use of heaters and boilers by the consumers cause the overloading. He said that if the consumers make judicious use of electricity, there is no need for power curtailment. “We have formed several inspection squads to stop power thefts and consumers are being fined for this”, he added.
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